By Eiichiro Oda. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

For a volume that is, once again, an entire volume of fights, there’s a lot going on here. Let’s bullet point (or at least emdash) this volume:

— At last, Nami is awake and doing things again. Thankfully, once she wakes up, the whole distressed damsel plot gets kicked in the teeth, and she and the Zombie Lola end up kicking Absalom’s ass. One Piece may not be a feminist manga by any stretch, but it’s a damn sight better than 99% of what’s out there.
— And then, my friends… we get what may be my favorite funny One Piece moment ever. In the anime it’s even better, with the full blown music and effects, but Pirates Docking Six Giant Robot Warrior Big Emperor is damn near perfect. From Zoro and Sanji’s blank stares to Franky, Chopper and Usopp’s looks of betrayal, topped off by Robin’s “I find it embarrassing as a human being”, this is Oda at his best, using the personality of the crew perfectly.
— Speaking of which, it’s nice to see the entire Straw Hat crew on the cover again. I’d missed Robin at first, but there she is, down by the number 49, wishing with all her heart that she was somewhere else.
— Perona tries to escape on the Sunny, figuring out that things are going to hell. Unfortunately, this is stopped by the arrival of ANOTHER Warlord of the Sea, Bartholomew Kuma. Who proves to almost be a game breaker with his powers, as he sends Perona vanishing off to who knows where, and then proceeds to track down Moria and let him know that failure will be unacceptable. Also, intriguingly, he asks about Ace.
— The main thrust of this volume is seeing how well the Straw Hats work as a team. Most of the previous arcs have featured them either in one-on-one battles, or teaming into small groups. Here, especially once Nami joins them again, they show off their strength, brains and courage. Their plans are really quite clever! It’s just that they’re up against a nigh-immortal Zombie controlled by a Warlord with shadow powers.
— So, inevitably, they get to be strong-willed and clever, then go down. We see them reason about Oars’ weak point, and then peck away at it till it does some good. And, having been knocked down, they keep getting up again (sadly, no one drinks a whiskey drink here). I’m reminded again how tough this crew is. Usually it’s Usopp who gets to show off the endurance, but all of them are knocked out multiple times in this volume and get back up and fighting.
— And here comes Luffy, and thanks to some allies, he is essentially SUPERLUFFY, with 100 shadows inside him, making him look akin to The Incredible Hulk. (He’s colored blue on the cover, likely for very good legal reasons.) And Superluffy is not going to let some huge invincible zombie stop him! Oars gets his ass kicked from hell to back.
— Sadly, Oars is not the final boss of this arc, Moria is. And Moria pulls out all the stops, drawing in every single shadow of all his zombies, including Cindry and Lola, who we briefly see fall over dead (well, they were already dead), and becoming his own superhuman. Everyone flees in sheer terror… except the Straw Hats, that is, who are ready to stand up to anything! (I do love Usopp’s scream even as he stands with his comrades. Almost pure Don Martin…)

And so, as the volume ends, Luffy is ready to bust out his final moves. Can we possibly stand the suspense? Well, no, but luckily Vol. 50 is already out.